February 1, 2026
The Cat in the Back
In case you didn’t notice, we were snow-less last week. I figured we had a 30 percent chance of snow. I just missed it by 30 percent, so I was close to being right. But I didn’t mind the time Kay and I spent checking to see if it was snowing.
During our snow spying, Kay was reading a book, and I was watching something unmemorable on TV. Suddenly we heard some scratching at the back door. I thought it was either a racoon or a blind owl.
Kay takes care of our front door, but we’ve never needed to answer the back door. As soon as she looked out back, she saw an orange cat. I thought that odd, because we never heard a cat scratching at our door before.
Kay knew before we got married that I wasn’t fond of cats. It didn’t faze her a bit, so I told her that a house-cat killed one of my friend’s brothers. She said, “Ah.” -- Ah? That was when I realized that I was soon to marry a girl who would ultimately take charge. Here we are 54 years later, and Kay comes walking from the garage carrying a box with a towel in it.
That’s when I laid down the law. Before she got to the door, I said, “Darling, I don’t want a cat in our house. And keep in mind, that I’m your husband.” She just gave me a weird stare and took more steps toward the back door. That’s when I said, “Okay, then. You can bring the cat in from the cold. It can stay for the night, but after that it’s—” She was already out the door so I didn’t get to finish my objections. Just as well.
Well, the cat was orange with white stripes. Or white with orange stripes. You can never know with cats. Kay handed me the cat, and then walked to our food pantry where she found a can of cat food. I had never seen it before. When I asked why she kept cat food in the pantry, she said, “Well, it’s a long story and you don’t want to hear it.” I’m good, but not good enough to come up with a reply for that weird of a comment.
The cat did a good job with the can of cat food. I think it would’ve eaten a can of frogs, if Kay had shopped for one. Yet, she happened onto a can of cat goo.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the cat liked Kay more than me. I only held the thing once. Kay held the cat a lot. This cat was wild. I’d seen it in the neighborhood on several occasions. A sly cat, this one. It’s really into birds. That thing will sit quietly without any movement for a good while. Suddenly, a bird returns once more to a bush, and wham-mo! The cat has it.
While the cat was getting acclimated with the sleeping box, I went back to watching another episode of Grantchester. After that I started watching an hour of a movie that turned out to be a nine-episode series. I can’t handle nine episodes of someone chasing a bad person around three states. I’ve tolerated some unimpressive series before, but only because it has good characters and occasionally throws in some humor.
Beg your pardon? Oh, the cat? After I turned off the TV, Kay walked into the guest room to see if the cat would follow her out of the room. It did. Then the cat decided to follow me as I walked toward my lounge chair. At that moment I had an idea. Instead of sitting in the chair I walked toward the backdoor, opened it and then walked onto the back porch. That weird cat actually followed me outside and stood there walking around. After a few minutes, it crawled under our cedar fence into the neighbor’s yard.
The next day, our neighbor asked Kay if we had heard the loud barking of a dog that was near her backyard. She said the thing was huge. It was when Kay told me about that, we both caught on. That cat scratched on our door, because it was scared that the monster dog might eat her. Or whatever it is that mean dogs do to other dogs. I don’t know if they eat cats, but this dog scared the daylights out of the orange on white cat. You might say Kay saved that feline. Of course, I’m the one who got it to go outside. So, it looks to me like I’m really the hero of that snow-less, cold night. Although Kay says the cat just decided to go home after it had a good meal and warmed up.
If I added some stuff, I might be able to a get book out of this story. Nah. Then I’d have to take a picture of the cat.
End
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